Contents

Canon

Magic is the set of functions, actions and abilities which extend beyond the ordinary physical rules of the world. Although magic is subject to its own rules, and might be viewed as a kind of superphysics rather than a supernatural force, the rules of magic are ambiguously defined and poorly understood by most inhabitants of Erfworld.

Basics of Magic

All magic is based on the presence or absence of three elements: Life, Motion and Matter. There are eight Classes of Magic, each one unique in its combination of elements. Classes are further divided into disciplines, each of which revolves around one of three magic axes -- Erf, Fate, or Numbers.Erf-b1-p038a

For example, one can see from the chart that the combination of the elements Life and Matter gives the class Hippiemancy which is divided into the disciplines of Flower Power (Erf Axis), Signamancy (Fate Axis), and Date-a-mancy (Numbers Axis).

Casters

Casters cast Magic Spells, which alter the world around the Caster in some way, gather information, or otherwise provide a result that would be considered extraordinary or supernatural in the Real World. Each Caster has one Discipline of specialization. Most casters cannot cast outside of their specialized Disciplines; those who can are rare. This does not seem to stop casters from trying to cast outside of their discipline, should they so choose, but attempts to do so seem to end in failure.

Casters are titled after their Discipline of specialization. For instance, a Caster that specializes in Lookamancy is known as a Lookamancer. Whether to protect their trade or guard dangerous knowledge, all disciplines have a code that forbids their practitioners from letting certain secrets about their discipline be known.

Multiple Casters can also Link with a Thinkamancer to cast powerful, multi-class spells; however, there are risks since an improperly broken Link could damage or croak the Casters. In addition, the more casters you link, the more difficult it is; two casters (the Thinkamancer and participant) is fairly reliable while three is quite risky due to the backlash when the link is broken improperly. The Great Minds have been able to link up at least 18 thinkamancers in a state 6 trance-fusion, but reaching these higher states requires a large number of Master class Thinkamancers.

Spells

A Spell is a process by which a Caster achieves a magical effect. Casting a Spell involves using hand gestures, materials, and/or verbal triggers to accomplish the desired end result. Each Discipline has a limited number of spells. Spells are powered by the expenditure of juice.

Magic Items and Artifacts

A Magic Item is an item that is both magical and made by a mortal. An item with magical powers not created by mortals is called an artifact.Erf-b1-p035

Scrolls

Through some unknown process, a caster can create and use scrolls. This has the advantage of not using up caster juice (or energy) at the time of casting the spell, but requires considerably more juice when initially created, and the scroll does not necessarily have to be of their specialized Discipline. Though very uncommon, multiple disciplines can be embedded into a single scroll. Erf-b1-p005Erf-b1-p036 Such a summoning scroll was used at the beginning of the comic to summon Parson Gotti to Erfworld. Said scroll was created by a Lookamancer, a Findamancer, a Predictamancer, and a Thinkamancer, some of whom were linked for at least part of the process.